Topeka Google A Topic http://topekagoogle.wordpress.com

Official Google Blog: A different kind of company name

People who noticed this change of name today might love to view it as April Fool's Day effort but I wonder if CNN would agree to backdate and post in March, just for kicks! Read more on this: http://topekagoogle.wordpress.com/2010/04/01/google-becomes-topeka/

I am interested to hear from people who might recognize this as a RE-Branding effort! Its going to be hard to make "Topeka" a verb, like we did for Google.

Microsoft tries to kill Google: How Successful?

Well now that Bing.com is live, see for yourself and judge how well Microsoft's Search Engine is doing. We all know the story of MSN.com and how its was always number 3 on SEO after the prince Yahoo. The undisputed king of search remain Google for its ever changing SEO algorithms.

Google is a verb to us for many a reasons, principally for innovation and 'relevant content is gold' mantra. However, if you play around with Bing, you will discover a lot of cool features and certainly not Google's "Did you mean" feature :) - when one has a typo. In a way its less annoying but some people do like that option. if one types in "ouTube" in  Bing, it directly shows YouTube.com. In case of Google, the same search would also show 'Outube Videos' - a relevant subject matter.

Let's not take sides just yet but highlight couple of key usability features as an end-user and  SME.  Spending 100 million dollars in ad campaign is yet to ensure the user base Microsoft would like to have. 

If one googles the keywords "google", "yahoo" and "bing" at Google.com or Yahoo - 10 relevant results come up. Do the same at Bing, you get 1 result for each Google and Yahoo. But when you search "bing", the engine delivers 15 links and 4 video results! [Search Result as of June 17th 2009]

Well, now you know how to eliminate SEO/SEM rivals :)

Biggest claim on Live Search promoting Silverlight, bing doesn't demonstrate that fire power in the results published above. We can expect Microsoft to force Bing down Windows customers' throat in upcoming versions loaded in PC/laptops but will that make bing the search engine of choice?

This is only two weeks in the race for the Best Search Engine. However, it does look like Yahoo is likely to split a lot of its market share to Bing because of the later's clarity. Yahoo never really got the concept of 'less is more' and always bundled up services one after another. Don't get me  wrong, those are valued service offerings but one could be a little more strategic about the user interface. Bing has clarity and cleanliness - both aesthetically and technology architecturally!

After condemning its customers to suffering by launching Vista, Microsoft has actually offered something innovative and cool. If this is the way the company is deciding to move ahead, there just might be hope! Catching up with Google in Search business is just not going to happen  right away but not-that-far-cry either in my opinion.

Digg Ads: Will it be a success?

 June 3rd  Digg Blog informed us of its  new product launch:

"Today, we’re announcing our plans to roll out a new advertising platform — Digg Ads. Digg Ads will give you more control over which advertisements are displayed on Digg. The more an ad is Dugg, the less the advertiser will have to pay. Conversely the more an ad is buried, the more the advertiser is charged, pricing it out of the system."

Both from end user perspective and Corporate Branding, this will open up a new channel. The competition will harvest more filtered subject matter expertise and  eliminate poorly written/spam SEO articles  because the users define relevance. Once your content is not relevant the Ads will suffer and be buried, it the Ad money goes away the writers will have to be more careful for future endeavors.

Moving forward, in the web 3.0 platform, one could pick and choose the audience, valued service offering partners and cloud tag modulation.

Also, the eternal challenge of making the CXOs see the light about SEM/SEO will become much easier. The filtered white papers the whole proposition is promising.

Google or The PirateBay: Who will lead the free world of search

First, let me talk about what is BitTorrent and then we shall speculate about the freedom fight of "search" in the web sphere.

In simplistic explanation, BitTorrent is a a peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P) communications protocol i.e. you share your file with others to view/use as they please without accessing your computer directly. To do so, one creates a "Torrent" file and uploads to any website who is willing to host the information. This torrent basically is the uploader's digital contact card with all product information - anyone can connect to this uploader/seeder and download the said product. The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website that indexes/ gathers information and tracks BitTorrent (.torrent) files. The organization claims to be "the world's largest BitTorrent tracker" and is ranked as the popular websites of the websphere.

So what does Pirate Bay do? And different from Google
Pirate bay gathers information exactly like google does and provides to any searcher - only difference is, the pirate bay specializes on search of torrents. One can also search torrents via Google. It should be also mentioned that they get paid by advertisers on their site(does Google AdSense ring a bell?) - for even adult content(like similar versions of Adult Friend Finder etc.).
From 2003, the pirate bay has been providing this service at no cost to any web searcher.

Pause to think, why Gutenberg made his first press? Was it not to share knowledge? If history serves me right, he didn't charge for the 1st copy of printed Bible... neither did Einstein for his theories or formulas! If you wished to share a book you bought in 1700s with a million people in a gathering by reading aloud, would the writer be angry or would the architect of the published book go after your neck? No. because it was pure joy to spread knowledge.

So what has changed now that these four freethinkers of PirateBay are imprisoned to provide a platform to share? Copyright! I personally believe that the maker/author of any product/services should get credit for their creation/s. But what of the middlemen who reap the benefit? Take big record companies for example; writers, musicians, singers, music directors, technical producers go through a lot of pain to produce a song - so they should be rewarded but do you know how much of that $20 (average price of CDs) goes to these folks? Very little, and most goes to the label company for creating bureaucracy! Would you not like to pay the involved people directly? Even if you pay them double of what they get per CD, it won't probably exceed $10.

The choice is up to us and the original manufacturers (artisans - sorry for the middle age term but it is proudly befitting). I would suggest the "Artisans" do direct business in a B to C model via web sphere. Companies like Google and Pirate Bay can be the free providers of search - this way we all are winners. Apple's iTunes can easily embrace this model.

IF freedom we all want, let us stand up to the big corporates and make them change their business model.

It is 12.29 PM US EST and we can't view the world's biggest Bit-Torrent website. However, I would like to share the following news from BBC, which tells us the arrest of the PirateBay leaders last April.

Windows Activation for Windows XP - SP3 / SP2

How to bypass WPA (Windows Activation) on Windows XP
(Tested on Windows XP Professional SP2 and Windows Server 2003 R2 - works for SP3 too)

Guide & Steps:
1. Click "Run" on your start menu, or simply press (Windows Logo+R: Run dialog box) >Type "regedit" and press enter.
2. Registry Editor opens up, and you are presented with a long list of keys on the left.
3. Browse through the list to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WPAEvents.
4. Find on the right side: you should see a strings value named OOBETimer (The activation stuff)
5. Change it to: FF D5 71 D6 8B 6A 8D 6F D5 33 93 FD (whatever its value is) Note: If you change it, WindowsXp will change it back within a few seconds.
6. Right-click: WPAEvents and choose "Permissions..." (A small window opens up with a list of user names)
7. Click SYSTEM and in the list below ("Permissions for SYSTEM")
8. Check each & every box under "Deny"
9. Click OK to own windows. No need to reboot...

If you're too slow windows might change it back, so just hit F5 to refresh and make sure it got saved.
If not, just try again.


Note:
> Problem most of all are probably having is when you get to the "Permissions" section, so let's expand on this tricky area.
> Under "Permissions..." for WPAEvents, Go into the Advanced settings.
> UNCHECK "Inhereit from parent the permission entries that apply to child objects.
Include these with entries explicitly defined here"
> When prompted what course of action to take from here, click "COPY"
> From there, Highlight the SYSTEM line, and click edit.
> Deny all options, apply, and run a free copy of windows.


Note: This is not an attempt to let people bootleg WinXP but to help people who might have lost the original CD with the OEM sticker. This information was picked up from the web and I am not personally liable to any effect that your computer might have.

If this process works and you want to thank me, please visit my blogs and send them to your friends.
PAINTING BLOG: http://painting4art.blogspot.com
CARTOON BLOG: http://c-toon.blogspot.com
COMICS BLOG: http://comics-cartoon.blogspot.com
WEB 3.0 MARKETING BLOG: http://newsletter-email-marketing.blogspot.com

How to develop cutting edge Marketing/Communication plans?

PROBLEM: We all know the components(service offerings) that go into any good strategic marketing or communications plan. How the components are presented, quite often seem formulaic (age old business school proposal) and boring. How can one present the same components in a truly innovative, cutting-edge, and visually appealing manner?

SOLUTION: If we are talking proposals, I must say, I enjoyed the MarComm Plan we developed for CapGemini during a merger-acquisition. I agree with you all, if one throws in couple of Excel spreadsheets with traditional PowerPoint presentations then it does become boring.

However, if one creates a mini-portal in an interactive web 2.0 environment then the clients (both Internal & External) get to play around - become knowledgeable - and INTERACT(most important part in order to get feedback) to ascertain the goals along with the Comms/Marketing professionals.

For example: In FS(NA) Bloomberg terminal is a key component - short graphic representation showing the value added products(reports) make all the difference in triggering a sales dialogue (i.e. not boring :).

If the mini portal is templated out then all one needs to do is check boxes before each client presentation, gather raw data after presentation and reset for the next usage.

If this idea appeals to you, feel free to contact me.

Social Networking Can Help During Recession

We all know, social networking is for fun or purely business - but have you thought that social networking can help you land a job or find excellent talent pool for your establishment?